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1. Tell us about your journey

My journey has been a really ordinary one. I was born into an upper middle class family in Srinagar. Did my schooling in Jammu and then B.Tech from NIT Hamirpur in Himachal.

Post that, I used to work in Embedded Software, designing chips that would end up in the Ferraris and Mercedes of the world. Got bored doing it and decided to do my MBA from IIM Indore. After almost a year in IT Consulting, I decided to work in Start-Ups. For the last 10 years, I have been lucky to work with some amazing SaaS companies handling their GTM in some capacity.

2. What are the key ingredients to achieve success?

I believe there are 3 important ingredients to success – Clarity of Objectives, grit to do the hard work, and humility to learn along the way

3. How do you handle failures?

Failures are part and parcel of life. We are socially hardwired to celebrate success and hide failures. One of the features I requested on Linkedin was to highlight failures. I guess they ignored it. It is important to recognize that failures take an emotional toll on you. Whenever I have a setback, I prefer to vent my frustration in the gym or by going out on a run. Once I have dealt with the emotional side of failure, the next important part is to do a detailed retrospection and make sure I learn as much as I can, so that I don’t make those mistakes again.

4. Is the search for excellence utopian or is it for real?

People confuse excellence with perfectionism. I hate perfectionists and find it really hard to work with them. Excellence is not utopian state and it is definitely you don’t achieve overnight. You have to make sure you go through the grind every single day.

5. How would you mentor / advise people struggling in their lives?

One piece of advice that I give to every mentee is – Everyone shines when things are working well for them. But it is what you do and how you behave when things are not working for you, which will define your long-term success.

My only advice to people struggling in life is – to make every day count and make sure you keep learning new things and improving.

7. What’s the one quote that defines your approach to life?

” Lehroon se darkar nauka paar nahi hoti
Koshish karne waalo ki kabhi haar nahi hoti ”
By Harivansh Rai Bacchan